Posts Tagged ‘Treadmill’

I had a brutal test day yesterday, so when I finished at 5pm I shot over to the gym. I ran out 4 miles on the treadmill in 33mins51secs. Not bad, I then got on the exercise bike and brutalized my quads and glutes for 18 minutes. It felt good not to be sitting in front of a computer and typing.

I have one more question in an hour and then I am done taking tests for quite possibly the rest of my life…

Well today was an interesting day, I woke up a bit late and had a lunch appointment with a friend. I only had about half an hour to run, so I set out on a little 3 mile jog through a neighborhood that I didn’t really know. I used mapmyrun to figure out a route, and I was off.

Well, any idiot may be able to use mapmyrun.com, but you have to be a little smarter than any idiot to be able to follow directions. So, I took a wrong turn somewhere, and next thing I know the street names are not ringing a bell at all. I know that I am getting longer into the run, but not quite sure how long.

Well I finally realize where I am, and I know that it is at least 2 miles from the house. Who knows what time it is, but just head off in the proper direction now that I at least know where I am. Of course, this is a long busy 2×2 streets with the sun beating down and none of the shelter that the trees had provided when I was in the neighborhood only a few minutes earlier. Also, the wind was stiffer out on the main street because there weren’t as many houses and trees to break it before it got to you. Sometimes, it felt as if you were running in place.

When I finish, I have run a real respectable 4.5 mile run that took more than 30 minutes, but certainly less than 40 minutes. I had wanted to run a longer distance this week, but I had planned to do it when I was able to get on a treadmill. Oh well, tomorrow evening I will get on the treadmill and try to crack the 8 minute a mile pace for 5k.

It was a long day. I didn’t get to the gym until almost 5 o’clock. Brutal.

I hadn’t eaten, but I was well hydrated. When I started to run it felt real good. I started at 7.0 for the first half mile and then 7.1 for the second half mile. After that, I bumped it up to 7.2 for one tenth of a mile. From there I ran 7.3 and 7.4 for a half a mile each. I intermittently bumped the speed up to about an 8.0 before it was done. I’m closing in on an 8 minute pace.

My heart rate was furious when I stopped, but I attribute this to it being so late in the day and having not eaten yet. I enjoyed dinner afterwards.

A strong run today, if you look back to my last run, I started at 7.0 and increased at the half mile point until I hit 2 miles then I increased for one tenth of a mile, then continued. This time, I took the one tenth of a mile at mile 1.5, so it looked like this: 7.0 for .5 miles; 7.1 for .5 miles; 7.2 for .5 miles; 7.3 for .1 miles; 7.4 for .5 miles. Tomorrow, I will move it down to the 7.2 level. It increases your pace by about a second per mile.

The walk was good to cool down. 8.5 laps on the track. I wanted to run a few distance intervals, but there were at least 30-40 kids on the track at the time. It appeared that they were doing some sort of running/fitness test. There is something to be said for form. I think that I am going to start a vigilant fight against up and down movement in the running form. Everything that I have read states that the top of your head shouldn’t move up/down more than two inches throughout your gait. Also, how much energy does your average runner lose on their back kick. Girls, your feet should not almost touch your butts, I promise this is wrong.

My pace is starting to get in line with what I want to run on the next half-marathon, so I will start adding some distance. I want to do this slowly because I feel like my weight is starting to get in line with my running, so I need to adjust distance so my weight loss will correspond. So, I think next week I will add a 5 miler/8k with a pace of about 8:20 per mile. I will also work to break the 8 minute pace next week. I would be real happy with an 8:15 half-marathon pace. I feel that I need to be training near 7:35 on the treadmill to accomplish that. I also feel strongly that I need to be sub-180 pounds to run at that pace safely.

Because of school and what not, I didn’t make it to the gym today until 4ish, and I was starving. I got on the treadmill and started at 7.0 for the first half mile. This is the first time that I have not even used the 6.9 speed. I upped it each half mile until 2 miles were complete. I ran the next tenth of a mile at 7.4, and then ran half a mile at 7.5. My last half mile was increased by .1 each tenth of a mile.

It felt real good. This may be the easiest 5k I ran in a while, and it was at the fastest pace. The walk felt good afterwards. The one thing I did notice was that my heart rate was extremely high, but it came down pretty quickly once I started walking. I also struggled with the new earbuds I bought, and I will post a product review tonight. My body feels great, and my weight was not greatly effected by another weekend road trip.

Although, I attack this issue through math in my head or working out other problems while I run, a number of people have talked to me about how boring they find running lately. Although, it may just not be the exercise activity for you, or you may simply have this problem with all forms of exercise, you need to deal with this if you hope to train for an endurance event. This is a psychological phenomenon.

I have a few thoughts on this topic:

1) You are doing the same activity over and over. I think this is bread through the simple 12 week training strategies put forth by the running experts, i.e. run for 30 minutes on Tuesday and run for 30 minutes on Thursday.

If you change up your pace, distance, practice method, time of the day, place where you run, what is playing on your ipod, etc., you will be able to overcome this boredom.

2) You don’t like to be alone inside of your head with nothing to do but think for that long of a period of time. Let’s face it, some of our lives do not need to be scrutinized that diligently or they become scary.

In this case I would recommend finding a running partner. Someone to talk to will make this process much easier for you, whenever the bad man in your head comes knocking. If you can’t find a running partner, get an ipod and go real loud. One of the reasons I like the gym so much, is that there is always something else going on or someone to make fun of in your head while you run (con, surely someone is making fun of you in there head).

3) You are running to stay in shape because you no longer play competitive sports.

If this is the case, you need to either compete or deal with the boredom. Running can be competitive; actually it is more competitive than most sports. You have so many competitors in running. There is the person on the treadmill next to you, there is your personal record, and there is no limit to people or things you can run against.

I also found an article through men’s health that deals with this issue.

What do people do that travel a great deal when they are trying to train to run races?

The only real hope I have of running on a day when I travel is to run right after I fly. On Tuesday I was successful, today not so much. My sister picked me up at the airport, and we immediately went to eat. This shot my chance at running today. So instead we went to the park and zoo with my nephew. We had a lot of fun and he is growing up very quickly. After dinner, I took a much needed trip to the jacuzzi. My legs feel real good and I will run first thing tomorrow.

I wonder if anyone has any advice regarding the benefits of the jacuzzi versus the sauna. I would be interested to hear how your body reacts to the two different muscle relaxing techniques. Personally, they are both helpful to my training and I take advantage of whichever option is available.

I will be running outside this weekend because I don’t have access to a treadmill. This ought to be interesting because it is rare that I run three days in a row on the streets. Hopefully, it won’t be too taxing on my joints.

I felt miserable in the morning, didn’t think I even wanted to go to the gym. I was sore from yesterday’s run, and I was not in the mood. As soon as I stepped on the treadmill, I felt great. I was able to run my 3.1 with no problems. When I finished up, I hit the track to walk a number of laps and ended up walking a mile.

After that I moved down to the weight room and was able to focus on the torso. I continue with the low weight high repetition regime that seems to be working. I feel a difference, see a difference and weight is coming off pretty steadily. I feel like I will be at a much more comfortable weight by the end of May.

I have to head to Rhode Island for the weekend so I am hoping to get at least six miles in during the weekend.

Well, it was good to get back from Easter break. I find it difficult to exercise outside of my normal routine.

Today, was a good run for me. I started at 6.9 for a quarter of a mile, and then ran a half mile each at 7.0 and 7.1. I then upped the speed for .1 mile to 7.2. I then ran 7.3 for three quarters of a mile and 7.4 for a half mile. The last half mile, I upped the speed by .1 each tenth of a mile.

The stretching exercises are something I do quite regularly once I start training. It helps if you do them right after running. I do six reps for each muscle group and hold the stretch for 5 or 6 seconds. I use the Precor Stretch Trainer. It’s a great machine. Today, I did the hamstring, hip, groin and quad stretchs.

I am overweight. It is hard to figure, but I am. I can run 3 miles, but I’m still overweight.

When you run as hard as I do and carry the weight that I do, this puts tremendous amounts of pressure on your joints in the lower half of your body. Soreness occurs, and over a long period of time, injury may result. This is why I am going to stick to this distance for a while. With the cool down walk that I do, I burn around 600 calories. If I couple that with cross training exercise, we are looking at over 700 calories over a particular workout. Leaving my caloric intake the same, I will lose roughly 1 pound per week. I have made slight adjustments to my intake, and I think I have safely cut another 200 or 300 calories per day. This should result in an average weight loss of 1.5-2 pounds per week.

Until I get down to a more reasonable weight, full fledged training for a half marathon would be very difficult. I would be able to increase my distance and time running consistently, but my training would be hindered by soreness and discomfort.

This is where the psychology of exercise comes into play. Patience and perseverance is needed. By retaining this distance, I can work on speed and shed some of the pounds that I need to shed to increase my distance comfortably. If I am too sore, I will not want to run. If I don’t want to run, eventually I will not run. Motivation is a funny thing. It disappears as pain increases. If one of the motivating factors to run is to lose weight (because you are overweight when you start), then workouts of this sort should be a reasonable pre-training regiment.

Satisfaction with ones workout is important. The more that you are satisfied that what you are doing is the right thing for you, the more willing you will be to continue doing it. If you over extend yourself, the results will not be significant enough to keep you on a path to your goals because the price on your body will be too high. Similarly, if you are taking too easy of a workout, you will not be getting the results that you desire and motivation will decrease this way.

I think often times that personal trainers forget about the psychological effects of soreness. Most people will not work through basic soreness, some people have a higher tolerance for this. By getting to know your client’s personal ability to cope with discomfort and pain, the personal trainer will be able to help temper the goals of their clients and better adjust their routines to be able to get the results that their clients desire. Instead, most personal trainers determine exercise regiments based on the amount of discomfort that they, personally, would be willing to sustain. They know their clients will be able to persevere, but they fail to take into account whether their clients will be willing to continue on that road.

I am a Ph.D. student interested in running. I have set a goal of running a half-marathon in 1:35. I have run one Half-Marathon before starting this blog. I ran the 2008 Virginia Beach Rock n Roll Half-Marathon in 2:06. I have been running pretty consistently for over a year, ... Continue reading →